A Guide to the Band Pulp

By this point, most music fans have heard Jarvis Cocker's anti-wealthy rants in "Common People", or heard about his antics when mooning Michael Jackson at a British award show. But far fewer have taken the time to fully appreciate their seven albums. Instead of spending the hours necessary to decide where to start, I present to you a concise list of the top picks from each album.

It is a commonly misunderstood first album. It certainly does not stand up to the rest of Pulp's work, lacking the sleazy lyrics that would later make Pulp so popular. However, there are a couple frequently overlooked gems within. "My Lighthouse", the album opener, is a gorgeous, simple acoustic ballad about lighthouses. It's a catchy number, though it does not hint at what Pulp would later become. "Blue Girls" is a nice, atmospheric number about anorexic girls who tan too much, and the only song on It that has any sort of meaningful lyrics. Both of these songs are mostly for Pulp diehards, but it would be a poor choice to completely dismiss them as growing pains.

Pulp's sophomore album Freaks goes even further away from what the group would eventually become, even letting Russel Senior sing on a pair of tracks. Opener "Fairground" is a nice, spooky track that would fit well on a Halloween mix, but truly cannot be taken very seriously. Immediately thereafter is one of Pulp's finest songs, the aching "I Want You". Jarvis goes through the motions of a relationship within the song, initially worshipping the girl from afar and then towards the end wanting to throw her away. It doesn't sound like Pulp, but the theme is consistent with the later work, and definitely a song that any casual Pulp fan should hear.

With Separations, Pulp finally hit their stride, combining synthesizers and dance beats to sleazy lyrics. The album is far from perfect, but still definitely worth a listen. Once again the band hits with a strong opener with "Love is Blind", which begins to contain some great couplets such as "The future is shining like a giant metal beast / It shines so bright tonight with its legs open wide". The album is raunchy, and Jarvis puts on an air of non-chalance, while still obviously caring very deeply about the relationships he is singing about. "Don't You Want Me Anymore" is a bitter song directed at an ex-lover, and has an excellent, if atypical, electric violin solo. The centerpiece of the album, and one of the absolute best songs Pulp ever wrote is the penultimate "Death II", the second of a trilogy of dance songs penned in this time ("Countdown" and "Death Goes to the Disco" being the other two). Though the synth sounds dated at this point, the vitriol spewed by Cocker in the lyrics is still as poignant as ever.

With His'n'Hers, Pulp finally gained some critical recognition, nearly 10 years into their career. Like Separations, the album is sleazy, has cheap sounding synths, but is filled with Cocker's venom and longing in a carefully struck balance that worked amazingly well for the band. The absolute best example of this lies in the Sisters EP which, though it was not a part of His'n'Hers, is available on the second disc of the deluxe edition recently released. As for the actual album, standouts include "Pink Glove", "Happy Endings", "Lipgloss", and "Babies", though I could easily just list every song on the album. The only downside lies within the last two songs, which fail to live up to the standards of the first nine.

Different Class was the commercial breakout for Pulp, with their first #1 single in "Common People". If you have not heard "Common People", it is definitely the best place to begin with this band. "I Spy" is my personal favorite from the album, however, as its tale of civilized debauchery and Cocker's obsessive monologue win me over every time. "Disco 2000" is yet another longing song, as is "Underwear", and though Cocker repeats his subjects so many times in his career, the songs still sound fresh as the day they were released. The closing pair of songs "Monday Morning" and "Bar Italia" are nearly perfect together, as the party and the hangover, a topic that would be frequented again on the follow-up album This Is Hardcore.

"This is the sound of someone losing the plot / You're gonna like it, but not a lot," sings Jarvis on opener "The Fear", and the song is truly a different sound to Pulp's last three albums. Though it is often considered a letdown in comparison to Different Class, I personally prefer it as a whole, regardless of its faults. The lyrics are stronger than Cocker ever was or has been, as he writes about new subjects such as the sex industry, aging, and his fear of the future. "This Is Hardcore" is an epic song which can best be described as noir, and even the video depicts it as such. Pulp finally lives up to their namesake and captures the pulp novels of the 50s in a song to wonderful effect that absolutely must be heard. Other standout tracks include "Help the Aged", "Seductive Barry", and "Glory Days".

Pulp's final album, the Scott Walker produced We Love Life, was yet another change of sound, to something a bit more natural as evidenced by their name in leaves on the front cover, and their tour of nature conservatories instead of auditoriums. Cocker finds himself recovering from his hangover and once again rooting for the underdogs with songs like "Weeds", "Bob Lind", and "Sunrise", though the real standout track is with the 8-minute "Wickerman". Cocker does not sing on the track, but tells a story of life near the Wicker River in Sheffield, and describes traveling under the bridge and visiting his old haunts to find things he had carved in tabletops in obsessive romantic detail. The same topic is visited in "Trees", but "Wickerman" easily trumps this, and is a great swansong for the band.